$5 billion is a cool amount of money for any country in Asia. So, you can easily realize the contribution it makes to the Indian economy. This remittance is coming from GCC countries in Middle East. I am quoting from a report of DNA India:
" Over four million expatriate Indians staying in the Gulf Cooperation Council states send home a staggering $5 billion annually as remittances, according to a study.
According to it, foreign workers send a total $27 billion annually, which is almost equal to nine per cent of GCC states' GDP each year.
There are 13 million expats in the GCC countries which account for 70 per cent of the workforce. Some expect the number to reach 18 million by 2017, according to a report in the Gulf News"
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has 6 member countries:
Bahrain
Kuwait
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
The United Arab Emirates (UAE)
Except Oman, all of these countries are very rich and GCC countries hold vast amount of oil reserve. These countries import manpower for mainly two reasons:
1. These countries need additional manpower for keeping their economic activities alive as they do not have huge population. Literacy rate is still not very high in these countries and that is why they need highly skilled professionals.
2. Most citizens of these countries are reluctant to work low paid manual jobs and these countries import such workers (often unskilled and semi skilled) from South Asian countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
I am happy mainly for one reason- 4 million Indians are working in GCC countries and that takes care of 4 million families in India. In the rural areas, many families depend on the money sent by their relatives working in GCC countries. That is a great blessing for a country where millions of people are still unemployed.
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